Political Communities Reordered (900-1050) - Division and Development in the Islamic world - The Emergence of Regional Powers

6 important questions on Political Communities Reordered (900-1050) - Division and Development in the Islamic world - The Emergence of Regional Powers

How did the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates impose their rule? What happened when the caliphate became weak?

While the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates remained strong, they imposed their rule through their governors and army. But when the caliphate became weak, as it did in the tenth and eleventh centuries, old and new regional interests came to the fore.

What new groups emerged around the year 1000?

From east to west in the Islamic world, the main new groups that emerged: the Samanids, Buyids, Hamdanids, Fatimids, and Zirids.

What was the key cause of the weakness of the Abbasid caliphate?

  • The key cause of the weakness of the Abbasid caliphate was lack of revenue.
  • When landowners, governors, or recalcitrant military leaders in the various regions of the Islamic world refused to pay taxes into the treasury, the caliphs had to rely on the rich farmland of Iraq, long a stable source of income. 
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How did the rich farmland of Iraq lose its stable source of income?

  • A deadly revolt lasting from 869 to 883 by the Zanj - black slaves from sub-Saharan East Africa who had been put to work to turn marshes into farmland - devastated the Iraqi economy.
  • Although the revolt was put down and the head of its leader was "displayed on a spear mounted in front of [the winning general] on a barge," there was no chance for the caliphate to recover.

What happened as a result of the revolt?

  • In the tenth century the Qaramita (sometimes called "Carmathians"), a sect of Shi'ites based in Arabia, found Iraq easy prey.
  • The result was decisive: the caliphs could not pay their troops. New men - military leaders with their own armies - took the reins of power.
  • They preserved the Abbasid line, but they reduced the caliph's political authority to nothing.

What led to regionalization? Where was it visible?

Competition between Buyid princes led to the regionalization and fragmentation of their state, an atomization echoed elsewhere in the Islamic world and in much of Western Europe as well.

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